Defending
Taiwan's "Democracy"

Executive
Summary: Whenever Blue Team "China Threat" theorists need to rationalize
gunboat diplomacy against China, they trot out their "Taiwan is
a Democracy" thesis. "Taiwan is a lively / thriving / vibrant democracy"
they declare, "therefore Americans have a moral obligation to rally
to its defense." Their syllogism is bogus in every respect. First,
Taiwan is not a democracy, but a cronyist dictatorship ruled by
an Asian strongman. Taiwan under Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian
is akin to the Philippines under Marcos and Indonesia under Suharto.
Second, Taiwan's liberty and prosperity are under threat, not from
Beijing, but from an autocratic, doctrinaire and incompetent Taiwan
independence nomenklatura in Taipei. Third, the Blue Team is not
defending Taiwan's "democracy," it is expanding America's empire
by violating China's sovereignty. If 278 million Americans have
any moral obligation, it is to prevent Blue Team China hawks from
provoking yet another Asian debacle underwritten with American taxes
and American blood.

I
LOOKED THE MAN IN THE EYE... I WAS ABLE TO GET A SENSE OF HIS SOUL

"President
Putin and I have just concluded two hours of straightforward and
productive meetings... I looked the man in the eye... I was able
to get a sense of his soul... I wouldn't have invited him to my
ranch if I didn't trust him. (Laughter.)"

The
press laughed, and so did we. How could we not? Was this actually
how the frat boy in the Oval Office determined which nations were
"strategic allies" and which were "strategic competitors?" Was this
actually how the Best and the Brightest in the West Wing determined
for whom our military machine would "do whatever it took," even
launch a nuclear first strike?

Unfortunately
the answer to these disturbing questions seems to be "yes."

Taiwan
independence spokespersons have long maintained that they "share
Americans' deep and abiding respect for Freedom and Democracy."
Having taken the Taiwan Lobby's reassuring public declarations at
face value, many Americans have assumed quite naively that they
understood what made Taiwan independence zealots tick.

They
could not be more mistaken. As with Albania's fascist KLA or Afghanistan's
Northern Alliance, the true face of Taiwan independence has been
systematically hidden from Americans by a complicit fellow traveler
media establishment.

GOODBYE
WHITE TERROR, HELLO GREEN TERROR

During
the final years of Chiang Ching-kuo's administration the younger
Chiang rescinded martial law, legalized opposition political parties,
and promoted Taiwan-born Chinese to key positions in the ROC government.
Taiwan was well its way to political, in addition to economic, liberalization.

But
time has not stood still. Taiwan has undergone a catastrophic regression
since Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian assumed office. Taiwan today
is a thoroughly corrupt "elective dictatorship" which tramples over
its own national constitution and democratic majority. Its ruling
DPP, having received a meager 39% plurality at the polls, doesn't
even rate the epithet "majoritarian tyranny."

Taiwan
today persecutes independent journalists and opposition parliamentarians
who dare to criticize the Taiwan independence nomenklatura's rampant
corruption and cavalier Rule of Law violations. What has replaced
the defunct White Terror is not Freedom and Democracy, but an increasingly
ominous Taiwan independence Green Terror. This may be news to Taiwan
independence sympathizers in America and Europe, but to loyal citizens
of the Republic of China it is Old News. Americans and Europeans
are just now getting wise to what has been common knowledge to any
cab driver in Taipei.

On
March 20, 2002 alas, the Taiwan independence nomenklatura's mask
slipped. Goons from the "democratically elected" Chen regime stormed
the offices of Next Magazine and the private residence of
one of its reporters in a chilling attempt to intimidate Taiwan's
ostensibly free media into cowed silence.

Taiwan
Magazine raided as Spy Scoop prompts National Security Alert

Wednesday
March 20, 2002

TAIPEI
(AFP) - [A]ccusing it of attempting to endanger security by
reporting on secret expense accounts used to bankroll spy operations
in mainland China... investigators and police searched the offices
of the Next Magazine in downtown Taipei... a printing shop
outside Taipei and the home of Hsieh Chung-liang, the writer of
the sensitive article. Investigators confiscated thousands of copies
of the weekly that were ready to be distributed Thursday... the
National Security Bureau said the search was necessary for safeguarding
security and "the rights and security of foreign friends"... [and]
threatened... a lawsuit against the Chinese-language China Times
which carried related articles.

FREEDOM
OF THE PRESS IS NOT FOR REACTIONARIES

"This
has nothing to do with freedom of the press, freedom of the press
also has its limits."


Chen Ding-nan (DPP) Minister of Justice to Chen Shui-bian

"Reactionaries
must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the
people have that right."


Mao Tse-tung, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party

Minister
of Justice Chen Ding-nan is the Taiwanese equivalent of homegrown
authoritarians Janet Reno and John Ashcroft. Chen Ding-nan's categorical
denial was a lie. The Next Magazine case has everything to
do with freedom of the press. The Chen Shui-bian administration's
Gestapo raid on Taiwan's independent media was motivated not by
any alleged concern for national security, but by fear of criminal
exposure. A major scandal potentially disastrous to the international
image of the Taiwan independence movement, an image cultivated at
great expense by the Taiwan Lobby, could not be allowed to see the
light of day.

Lee
Teng-hui ran for the office of President of the Republic of China.
Lee Teng-hui swore a solemn Oath of Office, promising to defend
the Constitution of the Republic of China. Upon being elected President
of the Republic of China however, Lee Teng-hui misappropriated Republic
of China taxpayer funds for the purpose of overthrowing the Republic
of China and replacing it with a "Republic of Taiwan." Lee Teng-hui
subverted the democratic will of Taiwan's pro-reunification majority.
Lee Teng-hui betrayed his Oath of Office. Lee Teng-hui violated
the Constitution he swore to uphold. In short, Lee Teng-hui sold
out his country.

That
is what this scandal is about.

To
put matters in perspective, the Republic of Korea's Chun Doo-hwan
and Roe Tae-woo received Draconian sentences for crimes far less
serious than Lee's. Chun and Roe's crimes were purely economic.
Lee Teng-hui's crimes involved not merely graft, but high treason.
The question is not whether Lee is guilty of these deeds. Lee freely
admits having committed them. The question is will he ever be brought
to justice for having committed them.

Even
the "energetically" interventionist Washington Post, Taiwan
independence fellow traveler and no friend of Beijing, saw no way
around the obvious:

"Taiwan
under former president Lee Teng-hui established a secret $100 million
fund to buy influence with foreign governments, institutions and
individuals... U.S. think tanks... Washington lobbyists... people
now in senior positions in the Bush administration... That Taiwan
has used money to win friends and influence people has been an open
secret for decades. Its lobbying machine is one of Washington's
slickest, outclassing the less practiced attempts by its Communist
[sic] adversaries from [mainland] China... "

According
to Reuters the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists faxed
a letter of protest to President Chen Shui-bian: "CPJ considers
this an important press freedom issue that has serious implications
for the health of Taiwanese democracy."

The
Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres or "Reporters Without Borders"
issued a similar statement: "The use of such practices is unworthy
of a democracy [sic] like Taiwan. Invoking national security to
justify this seizure is very questionable."

Chen's
Gestapo raids were in clear and direct violation of Article 11 of
the Republic of China's Constitution, which guarantees the right
to freedom of expression.

Bevin
Chu is an American architect of Chinese descent registered to practice
in Texas. Currently living and working in Taiwan, Chu is the son
of a retired high-ranking diplomat with the ROC (Taiwan) government.
His column, "The Strait Scoop," now appears occasionally
on Antiwar.com.

Chen
responded the way he always does  the way he responds to
strenuous objections from majority Pan Blue voters on Taiwan
that "stealth separatism" and "creeping independence" were
in clear and direct violation of Article 4 of the Republic
of China's One China Constitution.

"...
History will also show that I have a long-standing record
of being an unconditional supporter of freedom of press. [sic]
As an activist for democratic reform, I became a prisoner
of conscience in 1984 after publishing a magazine. Hence,
I share your conviction that freedom of speech is an unequivocal,
indispensable human right... the essence of democracy should
never be quelled under the pretext of national security, nor
should the flag of national security be used as a cover for
undermining freedom of press. [sic]"

...
AS I LIE THROUGH MY TEETH

What
"History will show" is that Chen served time not as "a prisoner
of conscience," not because he was "an activist for democratic
reform," but because as a magazine publisher he waged a libelous
media campaign against a hated political enemy  former
New Party legislator Fung Hu-hsiang.

Unable
to discredit Fung's pro-reunification political philosophy,
a frustrated, vindictive Chen set out to destroy Fung by fabricating
charges of plagiarism against him. Fung demanded that Chen
issue a retraction and an apology. Chen not only refused,
he escalated his smear campaign.

Left
with no alternative, Fung filed suit against Chen. Confronted
in open court with demands that he present evidence to back
up his scurrilous charges, Chen couldn't. Chen was convicted
of libel and served an 8 month sentence.

This
is all a matter of public record. You'd think with the scores
of US based "China experts" busy scribbling away on cross
Straits issues, one of them would have bothered to verify
the authenticity of A-Bian's account? No such luck.

Full
Disclosure: Josef Goebbels was right. The Big Lie works, in
the short to medium term anyway. I myself was taken in by
this Big Lie of A-Bian's, as one of my early op-eds which
mistakenly refers to Chen as "a former political prisoner"
reveals.

It
was so typical of Chen not merely to lie, but to embed one
lie within another. Not only did Chen lie about his nonexistent
commitment to "freedom of [the] press," he lied about his
record of libel as a magazine publisher, to a media watchdog
group no less. Perhaps Chen confused Cooper with one of his
semiliterate, narrow-minded True Believers?

"
...recent actions by your government have undermined Taiwan's
legal protections for freedom of speech, which is guaranteed
in Article 11 of the constitution... CPJ strongly urges Your
Excellency to ensure that your promises to respect press freedom
are reflected in the policies and actions of your administration...
we are not convinced that the articles in Taiwan Next
and China Times pose a genuine threat to national security...
we see no justification for raiding the offices of Taiwan
Next and attempting to censor the publication..."

Cooper's
postscript drops all pretense at diplomatic circumlocution:

"Join
CPJ in protesting this attack on the press. Write or fax to
the address above."

The
frustration in CPJ's letter, and the disappointment in RSF's
public statement was palpable. Taiwan independence sympathizers
were finally getting a clue. So this was the "lively / thriving
/ vibrant democracy" they had been praising in the abstract
without having experienced in the concrete. So this was what
the democratic majority on Taiwan has had to endure for the
past fourteen years.

Talk
about "making an ass out of you and me."

TRIBAL
MEMBERSHIP, NOT INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY

"The
people have the right to know. Next Magazine has the
right to publish the news... the two secret funds have nothing
to do with national secrets, so the search is a violation
of press freedom."


Pei Wei, Executive Editor

Taiwan
Next Magazine

"This
is ridiculous. This is costing us a lot of money. We did not
publish missile defense plans here. We published a politically
embarrassing situation."

The
DPP's heavy handed Gestapo tactics against Taiwan Next
Magazine finally laid bare an ugly reality long concealed
from the American public. Taiwan independence zealots were
never bona fide champions of Freedom and Democracy. They were
petty tribalists morbidly preoccupied with identity politics.
Their highest priority was never individual rights and individual
liberty, but collective identity and tribal membership.

As
long as they achieved their "Taiwan, not China; Taiwanese,
not Chinese, ROT, not ROC" goals, all other considerations
were secondary, optional, dispensable. The Republic of China's
Constitution and Taiwan's pro-reunification majority are mere
inconvenient obstacles standing in the way of their would-be
"Republic of Taiwan" to be circumvented by any means available,
no matter how illegal, unconstitutional or immoral.

THE
ANACONDA IN THE CHANDELIER: CENSORSHIP ON TAIWAN TODAY

"In
sum, the Chinese government's censorship is less like a man-eating
tiger or fire-snorting dragon than a giant anaconda coiled
in an overhead chandelier. Normally it doesn't move. It doesn't
have to. It feels no need to be clear about its prohibitions.
Its silent message is "You yourself decide," after which everyone
below makes his or her large and small adjustments 
all quite "naturally."

Ever
since Hong Kong's retrocession to China in 1997, our establishment
media has been harping relentlessly on Beijing's "chilling
effect" on the territory's freewheeling media. But Green Terror
intimidation of dissident media personalities on Taiwan by
the pro-independence Chen regime makes the sob stories related
by former South China Morning Post writers Jasper Becker
and Willy Lam pale in contrast.

Most
Americans and Europeans haven't the slightest inkling as to
how relentlessly Lee and Chen have persecuted anyone who stands
in the way of their dream of a "Republic of Taiwan." Taiwan's
Green Terror began with Lee Teng-hui fourteen years ago, and
accelerated with Chen Shui-bian's "democratic" succession
to Taiwan's throne two years ago. Witnessing a Pan Blue opposition
divided and in disarray, impotent to check rampant "Green
Government" lawlessness, Taiwan's Quisling nomenklatura grows
more brazen with each passing month.

Political
talk show hosts Li Yen-chiu, Li Ao, and Sisy Chen for example,
have been forced into a desperate game of musical chairs as
political refugees, fleeing from one cable channel to the
next as media bosses cozy with the ruling DPP acquire control
of one media company after another.

Even
Hu Chung-hsing, who helped A-Bian get elected by portraying
him as a larger than life Man of Destiny, was not immune.
A bitterly disillusioned Hu made the mistake of pointing out
his former idol's feet of clay, and is currently both out
of favor with the Chen regime, and out of his General Manager's
job at CTV.

So
by all means, visit Perry
Link's article, posted at the U.S.-China Commission, www.uscc.gov.
That's right, dot gov. Yes, yes, I know. Link was just lecturing
us about academic and media independence from official government
orthodoxy, but he was referring to Chinese academic and media
independence from official Chinese orthodoxy, not American
academic and media independence from official US government
orthodoxy, you understand. Hardly the same thing.

Read
Link's piece. Substitute "Taiwan" for "China" and "Taiwanese"
for "Chinese." You will soon get a sense of what our Academia
/ Government / Media Establishment does not want you to know
about the Taiwan independence movement.

SO
WHO'S AFRAID OF FREEDOM NOW?

Last
month the Chen Shui-bian regime abruptly and unceremoniously
cut reception to CCTV-4, China Central Television, denying
Taiwan cable television subscribers access to a mainland television
channel they have watched on a daily basis for the past decade.
Taiwan television channels, on the other hand, remain available
for viewing in major cities all across the Chinese mainland.

So
my question to China-bashing Taiwan independence fellow travelers
is this: When it comes to the issue of cross Straits reunification
at least, just exactly who feels threatened by the free exchange
of ideas across the Taiwan Straits? Just exactly who feels
the need to impose state censorship to keep the goodwill between
mainland and Taiwan Chinese a secret?

Is
it champions of a reunified, inclusive China embracing Chinese
on both sides of the Taiwan Strait? Or is it small-minded,
petty "Us vs. Them" Taiwan independence "nativists" who would
seal the island off from the outside world, if only they could?

I
haven't even mentioned "Jie ji yong ren" which roughly
translates as "Avoid haste, be patient," the euphemistic term
for Lee Teng-hui's imperial edict forcibly prohibiting Chinese
citizens on Taiwan from exercising their personal liberty
by associating with fellow Chinese across the Taiwan Straits.
"Mr. Democracy" refers to his arbitary, unconstitutional decree
forbidding ROC citizens from taking an airliner, mailing a
letter, or shipping a freight container, directly from Taipei
to Xiamen or Shanghai as a "policy." Chinese on Taiwan who
defy Lee's "policy," stringently enforced by Lee's successor
Chen, face legal prosecution.

Memo
to wannabe dictators the world over: How do you commit a flagrant
human rights violation and get away with it? Simple. Commit
it in full view of the world, but make sure you label it a
"policy."

What's
"Mr. Democracy's" motive? Lee doesn't want Chinese on Taiwan
to reconcile with their kinfolk on the mainland. Most Minan
Chinese on Taiwan for example, trace their roots back to Zhangzhou
and Quanzhou in Fujian province directly to the west. Vice
President Annette Lu's older brother is a practicing attorney
in Taipei and in sharp contrast to his younger sister, is
a dedicated champion of Chinese reunification. Lu has organized
frequent family reunions between the Taiwan and mainland branches
of the Lu clan.

Too
much chipping away at the virtual Berlin Wall down the center
of the Taiwan Straits, and China will soon be reunified like
Germany. Right-wing Japanophile Lee can then whisper "sayonara"
to his pipe dream of a "Republic of Taiwan," nominally independent
but in geopolitical reality a Japanese strategic outpost against
the Chinese mainland.

THE
NEWS THAT WE THINK THEY OUGHTA SEE

"The
people of this country see the news that we think they oughta
see."


Ted Turner, Founder of CNN

Why
don't Americans know about Taiwan's Green Terror?

Americans
don't know about Taiwan's Green Terror because our establishment
media has decided Taiwan's Green Terror, which they insist
ordinary Americans are morally obligated to defend with American
taxes and American blood, is not "news we think they oughta
see."

Americans
don't know about Taiwan's Green Terror because previous outrages
have gone unreported by the same western journalists so vigorously
defended by such organizations as CPJ and RSF, and whose inexcusable
silence as Lee and Chen's censorship of pro-reunification
sentiment has been deafening.

How's
that for irony?

Our
establishment media, in gross violation of journalistic ethics,
assuming that is not an oxymoron akin to "military intelligence,"
systematically evades its professional responsibility to report
the failure of Taiwan's stillborn "democracy" to the American
public. Our establishment media engages in this unprofessional
moral evasion because they failed to retain their objectivity
while reporting on One Divided China, but instead allowed
themselves to be seduced by the Taiwan Lobby's "One China,
One Taiwan."

Having
taken sides, having allowed themselves to become emotionally
invested in the "lively / thriving / vibrant democracy" presided
over by "Mr. Democracy" Lee Teng-hui and "Son of Taiwan" Chen
Shui-bian, our establishment media is reluctant
to confront developments which bring them professional
discredit by underscoring their historical myopia and political
naiveté.

THE
MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY REMAIN THE SAME

"Plus
ça change, plus c'est la même chose."


Old French aphorism

Several
years ago Hsu Shui-teh, Secretary General of the KMT under
Chairman Lee Teng-hui was asked about an impending court case,
one potentially damaging to "Mr. Democracy" Lee Teng-hui's
thoroughly corrupt Mainstream Faction. Hsu, an obsequious
ass-kisser, rushed to bossman Lee Teng-hui's defense:

"What
have we got to be worried about? After all, the courts are
operated by the KMT."

Hsu's
Freudian slip, his momentary, unintentional lapse into uncharacteristic
honesty, earned him a footnote in ROC political history.

Today
Chen Ding-nan could easily say the same thing about the Democratic
Progressive Party:

"What
have we got to be worried about? After all, the courts are
operated by the DPP!"

Ever
since assuming power in 2000, the "reformist" DPP has flagrantly,
openly, brazenly engaged in every single form of corrupt behavior
for which they rightly condemned Lee Teng-hui's "Taiwan KMT"
in years past. As Sisy Chen, former Public Relations Chief
for the DPP has noted, the new generation of DPP leaders exhibits
an unseemly eagerness to sell out the party's long professed
ideals in exchange for money, power or a combination of the
two, that is downright sickening.

THE
PAN GREEN GOLDEN RULE: HE WHO HAS THE GOLD, RULES

During
the late Chairman Mao's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution,
coercive egalitarian Maoists demanded "Xian hong, hou zhuan,"
or "First red, then expert." Mao's insane economic "policy,"
astounding in its obtuseness, has been reincarnated on Taiwan
by the DPP and the TSU. The terms "Nativization" and "Taiwanization"
are the Taiwan independence Quislings' code words for de-Sinicization
and Japanization. During Chairman Lee and now Chairman Chen's
Nativization / Taiwanization Witch Hunt, Taiwan independence
zealots are demanding "Xian lu, hou zhuan," or "First
green, then expert."

Instead
of eliminating State Owned Enterprises outright by introducing
across the board privatization, the Chen regime has used them
to reward politically correct but professionally unqualified
political benefactors.

China
Steel is, or rather was, an exceptional SOE which consistently
yeilded handsome profits quarter after quarter, year after
year under an experienced, capable Pan Blue chairman. The
Chen regime recently fired him and turned over China Steel's
management to the former chairman of Taiwan's state-owned
Taiwan Sugar, a clue-less, incompetent Pan Green political
crony with a proven track record  of losing money.

Christine
Tsung, the Republic of China's Minister of Economic Affairs
was recently forced to resign only three months after assuming
office. Tsung publicly acknowledged she wasn't up to the job.
Tsung's qualifications were twofold. One, Tsung was Finance
Director for the small southern California community of Poway,
near San Diego. Two, Tsung's husband, president of Taiwan's
state-owned First Bank, donated US$1,000,000 to Chen Shui-bian's
presidential election campaign.

Transportation
tycoon Chang Rong-fa, head of the Evergreen
Group, is Chen Shui-bian's sugardaddy. When Chen was an
ROC legislator, his staff of twenty legislative assistants
were employees of Evergreen, provided free of charge to Chen
by Chang. Recently a Chen appointee made his debut as Chairman
of the Board of Taiwan's state-owned Bank of Transportation
and Communications. The new bank chairman is Chang Rong-fa's
son in law.

CHAIRMAN
CHEN, MEET CHAIRMAN MAO

Since
its founding the DPP has routinely and rightly condemned the
KMT for its Leninist conflation of Party, State and Military
authority into a single Supreme Leader. One of the DPP's solemn
promises was that once in office it would put a swift end
to such top heavy "cult of leadership" institutions inconsistent
with bottom up, grass roots style democracy.

A
mere two years into a DPP administration however, guess what?
DPP officials have suggested that if President Chen of the
ROC was simultaneously Chairman Chen of the DPP, "coordination
between the executive branch and the ruling party would be
more streamlined, more efficient." Would you be surprised
to learn that instead of indignantly rejecting the proposal,
A-Bian promptly put his seal of approval on it?

So
now the "Son
of Taiwan" is simultaneously Chairman of the DPP, President
of the ROC, and Commander in Chief of the armed forces. Chairman
Chen, meet Chairman Mao. You have more in common with him
than you would care to acknowledge.

THE
IMMORTAL FOLLY

"Those
who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived
any kind of emolument from it... can never willingly abandon
it."

 Edmund Burke

Patterns
in nature replicate themselves, or expressed in more mundane
terms, "History repeats itself." The Reformer overthrows the
Tyrant; the Reformer becomes the Tyrant. Intoxicated with
power and incapable of self-introspection, the Reformer turned
Tyrant cannot admit to himself that just like those he has
replaced, he too has been corrupted by Absolute Power. He
tells himself "I'm different, the times are different, the
circumstances are different," when in fact the only thing
different is the color of his uniform. This immortal folly
is brilliantly depicted in such film masterpieces as:


Viva Zapata
(1952) Directed by Elia Kazan, Written by John Steinbeck

and
in the immensely satisfying film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's
epic fantasy,


The
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) Directed
by Peter Jackson, Written by J.R.R. Tolkien, Screenplay by
Frances Walsh

"MR.
DEMOCRACY": PRIME SUSPECT

"Despite
considerable media publicity in both countries concerned the
Taiwan kick-backs with murder process and the partially related
French kick-backs with influence peddling process will fade
away as this millennium year ends. Some punishments may be
inflicted on some of those involved but there will be no dramatic
transparency of the corruption that lies at the base of both
processes."

If
heavy-handed Green Terror press censorship and endemic Green
Terror corruption weren't bad enough, it is merely the tip
of the Green Terror iceberg. How many Americans know for example,
that Lee Teng-hui is the prime suspect in the cold-blooded
execution/murder of Captain Yin Ching-feng, an ROC Navy whistle
blower? That's right, none other than Newsweek's cover
boy of 1996, "Mr. Democracy" himself. A murder suspect.

In
1993, Republic of China Navy Captain Yin had in his possession
taped evidence implicating "Mr. Democracy" as the chief conspirator
in a mind-boggling military procurement scandal involving
astronomical kickbacks on Lafayette frigates purchased from
France. The night before he was about to go public with his
evidence, Yin was seen being forced into a sedan by two men
and "taken for a ride," Chicago gangland style. Yin's corpse
was later found floating off the coast of Hualien by fishermen.
His throat had been cut. One need not be Gil Grissom or Catherine
Willows of the TV series "C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation"
to realize Yin did not die of a boating accident.

Former
ROC legislator Lee Ching-hua has been conducting his own independent
investigation of Yin Ching-feng's murder. Lee Ching-hua has
lamented that despite a mountain of damning evidence, the
case is going nowhere, at least on Taiwan. The only real progress
is being made in France by French prosecutors. As Lee Ching-hua
put it, it's a too typical instance of "ban bu xia qu,
yin wei ban bu shang qu," which loosely translated means
"the case cannot go forward, because it cannot go upward."

The
situation is pretty much summed up by the Chinese expression
"Guan guan xiang hu," which means "Officials cover
for each other." In case that still wasn't plain enough, it
means Chen Shui-bian is covering for Lee Teng-hui.

Fall
guys, some totally innocent, have been designated to take
the heat off Lee Teng-hui and fellow crooks Su Chi-cheng and
Liu Tai-ying. Among those falsely accused is Admiral Lei,
father of Lei Chen, a former Executive Vice President of the
American Broadcasting Company.

Meanwhile
key witnesses have fled overseas, crucial evidence has mysteriously
vanished, a cold trail grows colder, and justice for the heroic
Captain Yin and for long-suffering Chinese citizens on Taiwan
less hopeful with each passing day.

FIFTY-FOUR
SUITCASES, EIGHT-FIVE MILLION DOLLARS

Bucharest,
Romania, 14 December 1999 (RFE/RL) ...The next day, for reasons
known only to himself, Ceausescu called a mass rally in downtown
Bucharest. Perhaps the Romanian leader still felt loved by
the people, or else he was confident in his ability to manipulate
the rally. It was a fatal mistake that was to be witnessed
by the entire nation. A minute into his speech from the balcony
of the Central Committee building, Ceausescu was interrupted
by shouts from the crowd of "Timisoara!" and "Down with Ceausescu!"
...By the afternoon of December 21, the center of the capital
was filled with thousands of people demanding Ceausescu's
ouster. Violent clashes with police soon erupted and continued
through the night.

The
Republic of China's March 18, 2000 presidential election had
nothing to do with "democracy" let alone Constitutional Rule
of Law. Instead, it was about "the peaceful transfer of political
authority," as Lee himself so shrewdly termed it. By exploiting
the dictatorial powers and immense resources available to
him as combined head of state and chairman of the ruling party,
Lee was able to engineer the defeat of his own party's candidate
Lien Chan, a reunificationist and to "transfer political authority"
to the pro-independence DPP's Chen Shui-bian. Because Lee
was able to foist his anti-democratic travesty on the ROC
electorate without provoking armed rebellion, Lee felt free
to characterize his election fraud as "peaceful."

Immediately
following "Mr. Democracy's" outrageous "peaceful
transfer of power" thousands of KMT Reform Faction and New
Party supporters staged a Tienanmen style protest in front
of KMT headquarters in Taipei. This columnist was among those
who took to the streets, waving banners, angrily shouting
"Down with Lee Teng-hui!" and "Lee Teng-hui, step down!"

That
was Tseng Wen-hui's (Mrs. Lee Teng-hui) cue to make her now
infamous "Escape to New York" with US$85 million in undeclared
used bills stuffed into 54 suitcases.

Why
now?

Lee
was suddenly a lame duck, and Taiwan's First Couple panicked.
Lee Teng-hui and Tseng Wen-hui, like millions of CNN viewers
worldwide had seen what the Romanian people did to Romania's
First Couple Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu. A frightened and
apoplectic Mr. Democracy was quoted as saying, "If Deng Xiaoping
could use tanks to put down Tienanmen, why can't I?"

A-Bian
had already gotten what he wanted, the presidency of the ROC.
Lee could no longer be certain A-Bian wouldn't sell them out.
Whatever dirt Lee might have on Chen, whatever sums might
have changed hands in some smoke-filled room, Chen had also
sworn publicly he would "investigate [the Lafayette Scandal]
to the bitter end, even if it shook the foundations of the
nation."

Given
Chen's public declaration, plus the seething mass of "peasants
with pitchforks" gathered outside KMT headquarters and Lee's
official residence, and it is doubtful the First Couple got
much sleep during those fateful days.

So
Mrs. Democracy absconded with a portion of Mr. Democracy's
kickbacks from the Lafayette frigate and Mirage fighter procurements,
just in case. I was not speaking figuratively when I compared
Lee Teng-hui and Tseng Wen-hui to Ferdinand
and Imelda
Marcos and to Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu.

Unfortunately
for them the undeclared cash was discovered by US Customs
officials at JFK airport. Just counting the bills took seven
hours. Among the eyewitnesses to Mrs. Democracy's flight from
justice were US Customs officials, US State Department officials,
EVA Air baggage handlers, Bank of America employees, and armed
security guards (Pinkerton's, if my memory serves me) who
escorted the cash back to Taipei.

EVA
Air's boss Chang Rong-fa as I mentioned, is a major benefactor
to Taiwan independence politicians Lee and Chen. Chang, in
financial terms, practically is the DPP. Evidence suggests
that with the help of the outgoing Clinton administration,
Lee and Chang covered up the entire fiasco. The cash in excess
of US $10,000 would not be confiscated as required by US law,
but Mr. Democracy would have to step down as KMT Party Chairman
in order to mollify outraged pro-democracy protesters outside
the presidential palace, and to avoid embarrassing the US
government for its sponsorship of a de facto dictator and
shameless kleptocrat.

Less
than a week later, Mrs. Democracy sneaked back to Taipei and
arranged a photo op at Tamsui Golf Course, ostentatiously
playing golf in the rain and fog, pretending that she had
never left Taiwan at all, insisting disingenuously that she
had "been here all the time."

When
ROC legislators Fung Hu-hsiang and Hsieh Chi-tah quite reasonably
demanded an official investigation of Tseng Wen-hui's failed
getaway attempt and subsequent cover-up, Tseng filed a libel
suit against them to shut them up. Fung and Hsieh were compelled
to respond defensively with a counter suit.

Let's
be absolutely clear. Fung and Hsieh did not commit libel.
Far from it. Fung and Hsieh were demanding an American-style
Watergate/Whitewater investigation, which as duly elected
members of the ROC parliament they were not only well within
their rights to demand, but morally obligated to demand.

Both
Tseng's lawsuit and Fung and Hsieh's counter suit were dismissed
in Taipei's District Court. The presiding judge in essence
handed this political hot potato which landed in his lap off
to the Appeals Courts by issuing a "Guess what? Nobody's guilty!"
verdict.

The
Taiwan public is outraged that the court lacked the judicial
independence to pursue the matter to the end, and in effect
officially sanctioned Mrs. Democracy's theft of mind-boggling
sums her husband could not possibly have earned legally during
his career as a civil servant. Tseng Wen-hui and her hubby
have "gotten away with murder," so to speak, probably literally.

On
the other hand, given the bright green Taiwan independence
"Anaconda in the Chandelier," hanging over the novice judge's
head, it is fortunate Fung and Hsieh weren't railroaded, incarcerated
in the Green Gulag and fined exorbitant sums they as public
officials of rare honesty could never hope to pay off in ten
lifetimes.

This
is the true face of "Taiwan's lively / thriving / vibrant
democracy" loudly trumpeted by the Taiwan independence propaganda
machine, from the Taipei Times to the Washington
Times. As I said, this is merely the tip of the Green
Terror iceberg.

THIS
ISN'T THE REPUBLIC ANYMORE, IT'S THE EMPIRE. WE ARE THE BAD
GUYS

"All
democracies turn into dictatorships  but not by coup.
The people give their democracy to a dictator, whether it's
Julius Caesar or Napoleon or Adolf Hitler. Ultimately, the
general population goes along with the idea... How did the
Republic turn into the Empire? ...How did Anakin turn into
Darth Vader? How does a good person go bad, and how does a
democracy become a dictatorship? It isn't that the Empire
conquered the Republic, it's that the Empire is the Republic.
One day Princess Leia and her friends woke up and said, 'This
isn't the Republic anymore, it's the Empire. We are the bad
guys... This democracy is a sham...'"

Our
Benevolent Global Hegemonists' complicity in Israel's brazen
campaign of ethnic cleansing on the West Bank and in Venezuela's
abortive military coup should leave no one in doubt. The primary
concern of the New Imperialists, as they are now calling themselves,
is not whether America's client states practice "American-style
Democracy." The primary concern of our homegrown versions
of Emperor Commodus, as depicted in Ridley Scott's retro epic
"Gladiator," is whether foreign and domestic political entities
represent inconvenient obstacles to "American-style Empire."

Post-communist
China is struggling to extricate herself from Third World
poverty and to throw off the final remnant of 19th century
colonialism. An economically prosperous, laissez-faire capitalist
China immune to US and Japanese gunboat diplomacy however,
is not part of the New Imperialists' strategic scenario for
the 21st Century. A bankrupt, Balkanized, and defenseless
China is.

Without
meaning to, China finds itself standing squarely in the path
of the New Imperialists. Any Chinese government which properly
insists on China's political independence, national sovereignty,
and territorial integrity will find itself involuntarily cast
by the Blue Team as America's implacable "Strategic Competitor"
and targeted for subversion and eventual destruction.

Taiwan
is neither a democracy, nor would Americans, who have their
own lives to live, be morally obligated to defend it even
if it were. Defending "Taiwan's lively / thriving / vibrant
democracy" is nothing more than the Blue Team's flimsy pretext
to justify China's destabilization and disintegration, and
to deny China's restoration to her historical status as a
respected member of the world community. Likewise with Bush
Jr.'s incomprehensible hostility towards Nobel Laureate Kim
Dae-jung and his "Sunshine Policy" towards the northern part
of his country. So much for the "benevolence" in Benevolent
Global Hegemony.

A
global American Empire does not constitute the fulfilment
of our Founding Fathers' American Republic on a global scale.
Just the opposite. A global American Empire is the antithesis,
the negation of our Founding Fathers' American Republic. A
global American Empire is to the Founding Fathers' American
Republic what antimatter is to matter, what the antichrist
is to Christ. The American Empire is the oppressor not only
of millions of foreigners abroad, but of millions of Americans
at home.

It
is not the American Republic, but the American Empire that
can besiege, starve, gas, machine gun and incinerate an entire
Protestant sect in rural Texas, and still declare without
irony that it is "deeply disturbed that Beijing is harassing
Christians in China."

It
is not the American Republic, but the American Empire that
can countenance killing half a million Iraqi children in the
name of "helping the Iraqi people liberate themselves from
domestic Iraqi tyranny."

It
is not the American Republic, but the American Empire that
can make astonishing statements such as "Rising Chinese economic
prosperity constitutes a grave threat to American military
supremacy in the western [sic] Pacific" without even blinking.

Blue
Team American Imperialists jealous of China's astonishing
resurgence will need to cast about for a more compelling pretext
than "defending Taiwan's lively / thriving / vibrant democracy"
to justify preemptive "containment" of China's lively / thriving
/ vibrant capitalist economy  not to mention the "deconstruction"
of the Great Republic established by America's visionary Founders.